British and U.S. Media Scramble To Explain Russia’s Oreshnik Missile Strike

Nov. 24—The New York Times was quite alarmed at Russia’s use of its new Oreshnik IRBM against Ukraine on Nov. 21. “Russia’s military fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile at Ukraine that Western officials and analysts said was meant to instill fear in Kyiv and the West,” the Times said in an article co-authored by five reporters. “Though the missile carried only conventional warheads, using it signaled that Russia could strike with nuclear weapons if it chooses.”

The Times continued: “The use of an intermediate-range missile drawn from Russia’s strategic arsenal was notable, Ukrainian and Western officials said. The target inside Ukraine was well within the range of the conventional weapons that Moscow has routinely used throughout the war. But this time, Russia launched a longer-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads that is mainly intended as nuclear deterrence; that choice, the officials and military analysts said, signals a warning aimed at striking fear into Kyiv and its allies.”

The Times quoted Fabian René Hoffmann, a weapons expert at the University of Oslo, saying that from a Russian perspective, “what they would like to tell us today is that ‘Look, last night’s strike was non-nuclear in payload, but, you know, if whatever you do continues, the next strike might be with a nuclear warhead.’”

London’s The Economist saw the Oreshnik strike as a harbinger of a new era of missile warfare. “Simply put, Mr. Putin wants Ukraine and its Western allies to believe that he might escalate either ‘vertically’ within Ukraine or ‘horizontally,’ by directly attacking NATO states,” it reported. “‘We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons,’ he noted on November 21st, as he described Oreshnik, ‘against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.’ On the same day, Ukrainian lawmakers were warned that the country’s parliament building in Kyiv was at risk of Russian missile attack.”

It continued: “These threats ought to be taken seriously, but not always literally…. More broadly, the use of Oreshnik and its ilk is part of a new era of missile warfare…. Oreshnik is the first-ever intermediate-range missile with multiple warheads to be fired in combat. It may not be the last.”